Shoami (and Ko-Shoami) is a name of an artistic school (style) for making sword-guards (tsuba), mounted on a Japanese sword (uchi-gatana[1] or just katana).
Possibly the elevation of the status of the silver-smith to a position where he was entitled to use a name like Shoami dates from the time when craftsmen began producing fine sword guards of this kind.
This in turn increased the number of people desiring to master the technique of guard design and production, since this field of endeavor promised prestige and reward.
From the Muromachi period until the nineteenth-century edict prohibiting the carrying of swords, Shoami guards in a wide range of styles were being produced all over Japan.
Moreover, a large number of Shoami sword guards easily pass as products of the more highly regarded Higo,[4][5] Kanayama, and Owari groups.